Construction and arrangement of



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CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT 0F RESTAURANTS Filed Feb. 20, 1948 5Sheets-Sheet 1 .L (2y TM @wz/qs July 1 1952 T. M. LEWIS 2,603,314

CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF RESTAURANTS Filed Feb. 20, 1948 5Sheets-Sheet 2 T. M. LEWIS CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF RESTAURANTSFiled Feb. 20, 1948 July 15, 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 July 15, 1952 'r. M.LEWIS CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT 0F RESTAURANTS Filed Feb. 20, 1948 5Sheets-Sheet 4 IItIP, III III l nlll W-B d d Q P: m

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CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF RESTAURANTS Filed Feb. 20, 1948 5Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented July 15, 1952 CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OFRESTAURANTS Thomas Maldwyn Lewis, London, England, as- Signor toConveyor Cafeterias, Limited, London,

England Application February 20, 1948, Serial No. 9,914 In Great BritainFebruary 25, 1947 Claims. 1

This invention relates to restaurants of the conveyor type adapted toexpedite the delivery of meals and to enable more meals to be servedwith the use of a given floor area than is possible by more conventionalarrangements.

It is a feature of such constructions that they should be as compact aspossible so as to reduce to a minimum the floor area which they occupyand this requirement may give rise to difiiculty in the way of customersentering or leaving the travelling system at the entrance and exitpoints due to there being insuflicient room for the customers to passcomfortably or conveniently between the tables and seats.

The object of the present invention is to overcome this difficulty in asimple and convenient manner without any sacrifice of floor space, andaccording to the invention there is provided means whereby the distancebetween the tables and seats may be increased at the entry and/or exitpoint.

According to one feature of the invention the seats may preserve theirnormal line of travel while the tables may be moved away from the seats.

7 According to a further feature of the invention the tables maypreserve their normal line of travel while the seats may be moved awayfrom the tables.

In either of the foregoing modifications the movement may be automaticor may be mad at the will of the customer.

Further features of the invention will be apparent from the descriptiongiven hereafter.

The accompanying drawings illustrate one convenient mode of carrying outthe invention.

Figure l is a perspective View showing the upper part of a portion of arestaurant in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a cross-section on a larger scale showing one set ofconveyors for tables, seats, and foot rests.

Figure 3 is a cross-section on a still larger scale showing one form ofseat and seat guide.

Figure 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a side elevation of a table on the left side of thearrangement shown in Figure 1,

Figure 6 is a section on the line 66 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is a diagrammatic plan view of an arrangement for automaticallymoving the table, particularlyillustrating the guide controlling thismovement.

Figure 81s a diagrammatic plan view of a modified arrangement providingfor the movement of the table, and

Figure 9 is a diagrammatic plan view of an arrangement embodying meansfor providing automatic movement of the seats.

In carrying the invention into effect in one convenient manner theimproved restaurant is formed with an endless conveyor (1 supported uponsuitably spaced rollers 17 in its upper length or run and carrying slatsor slabs c of plastic or other suitable material serving as tables. Therollers b roll along the longitudinally extending track of the framemember b which therefore constitutes supporting means for the conveyora. Adjacent this conveyor there is provided a second and parallelconveyor d carrying the seats e for the customers and also supported onits upper length or run by rollers f rolling along a frame or track 1"which constitutes the supporting means for conveyor 11, and between thetwo there may be a further con veyor g supported on its upper run by therollers h rolling along track or frame member h and serving as a movingplatform on which the customers may rest their feet while seated.' atthe tables, it being understood that all the conveyors travel at thesame linear speed and are mounted upon and driven by any suitable means.

In one construction in accordance with the invention the slats or tables0 may be movable transversely of the conveyor by being mounted onrollers arranged in guides or by other suitable means and at the entryand exit points of the restaurant cam guides of suitable form areprovided engaging means upon the movable tables so that at these pointsthe tables will be moved automatically across the conveyors and awayfrom the seats thus leaving ample room for the customers to pass in andout at these points between tables and seats.

In a further construction in accordance with the invention the tablesmay be made to preserve their normal line of travel and the seats e maybe movable transversely of their conveyors and may be engaged bysuitable guide means so that the seats will be moved away from thetables, this arrangement being shown at the bottom part of Figure 1.

In the foregoing arrangements the movement of the tables relatively tothe seats .is effected automatically but in place of this arrangementthe tables or the seats may be mounted so as to be movable as requiredby the customers themselves, and in such case it may be convenient toprovide suitable limiting means whereby the extent of movement in eithercase may be limited. In the case where the movementis automatic this maybe effected in both directions by suitable guides or in some cases themovement may be positively effected in one direction by the guides andthe return movement may be efiected by springs. Moreover, such springsmay also be employed for the return movement in the case where thepositive movement in one direction is effected by the customersthemselves.

In the particular construction shown in Figures 2, 5 and 6, the tablesare arranged for automatic movement and each table consists of a slat orslab c of suitable plastic material having a dove-tailed slot therein bywhich it may be slidably carried on a complementarily formed portion ofthe member having depending lugs c secured to the conveyor. One end ofthe table has secured to it, as by the screw 0 a depending membercarrying a roller adapted to travel in a channel guide 0 which runsparallel to the conveyor except at each end, where it is shaped toproduce the necessary movement or the table at the exit and entry ends.The end of the table remote from the guide 0 is supported by a guiderail i which runs parallel to the guide 0 If it be required to move thetable by hand, the channel guide 0 would be widened to permit themovement required, and the guide rail 2' would be set in from the edgeof the table at each end. The seats can be moved transversely if desiredin the same manner as the tables.

In Figures 3 and 4 one convenient form of seat is illustrated in whichthe seat cushion e is carried in a trough-like member lc having guides70 receiving rollers I carried by a member 111 secured to the conveyor,the seat thus being movable transversely of the conveyor upon therollers Z. When it is required that the movement of the seats beefiected automatically, this may be done if desired in a different wayfrom the method used for the tables by providing a se-- ries of rollersk located at one edge of the seat and secured to the supportingstructure, and such rollers are maintained in contact with the seat asit passes in front of them by means of a spring 70 attached at one endto the seat and at the other end to the carrier member m.

An alternative method of movement would be to control the seat by alight spring such as k against which the seat would be movable by theweight of the customer, the extent of movement being controlled by stopsat the ends of the guides it.

As indicated in Figure 7 the channel guide 0 and theguide rail i areparallel and the roller 0 carried by each of the table slabs 0 movesbetween the walls of the guide a and at the entry and/or exit points theguide deviates so that the roller in following the same moves the tableslabs c transversely of the line of movement.

In Figure 8, as illustrated, the arrangement in which the guide rail 11is straight and the guide member 0 is formed with a deviation that atthe entry and/or exit point is disposed closer to the guide rail 2 sothat as the conveyor a moves the table 0 the customer is able to pushthe table transversely of the line of movement and the guide rail 11being straight would thus be set in from the outer end of the table asshown.

In Figure 9 is illustrated the arrangement for automatically moving theseats, and as shown the series of rollers k embody a plurality ofrollers causing the seats to move transversely of their line of travel.As clearly shown in this figure with the conveyor d moving, the movableseat portions comprising the cushion carried in the trough-like member kare moved transversely of the member m carried by the conveyor. The

rollers engaging the surface of the seats cause them to movetransversely and stretch the spring 70', and. which spring holds theseats against the rollers so that when the path defined by the positionof the rollers k widens the seats are moved in a transverse directiontoward the tables.

It will be understood that the foregoing details of construction aregiven purely by way of example to indicate the nature of the inventionand not to limit its scope and the number of conveyors comprised in arestaurant and the directions in which the conveyors travel (that is,whether in horizontal or vertical planes) may be varied depending uponany practical requirements that may have to be fulfilled.

I claim:

1. A restaurant including laterally spaced, elongated parallelsupporting means, said supporting means being disposed at differentheights, an endless conveyor supported by and movable over each of saidsupporting means, horizontally disposed table constituting means carriedby the-highest of said conveyors and horizontally disposed seatconstituting means carried by the other conveyor, both of said conveyorstravelling at the same linear speed, and means for increasing thetransverse distance between the seating means and the table means so asto facilitate the passage of customers therebetween.

A restaurant including at least one endless conveyor constituting in itsupper length a continuously moving horizontal table, a stationarysupport arranged immediately beneath the upper length of the conveyorand extending substantially throughout the length thereof, an endlessconveyor at one side of said moving table and at a lower level than thetable and constituting in its upper length a continuouly movinghorizontal line of seats and a stationary support for the upper lengthof the seat conveyor arranged immediately therebeneath, the table andseats' travelling at the same linear speed, and means for inceasing thetransverse distance between the seats and the table adjacent at leastone end of the upper lengths of the conveyors to facilitate the passageof customers therebetween.

3. A restaurant as claimed in claim 2' including means mounting theseats for transverse movement relative to their conveyor, the increasebeing effected by movement of the seats transversely of their conveyor,the tables preserving a normal line of travel.

4. A restaurant as claimed in claim 2 including means mounting thetables for tranverse movement relative to their conveyor, the increasebeing effected by movement of the tables transversely of their conveyor,the seats preserving a normal line of travel.

5. A restaurant including at least one continuously moving horizontalldisposed table and at least one continuousl moving horizontally disposedseat travelling at the same linear speed as the table and disposed inparallel spaced relation thereto, individual supporting means for thetable and seat including means providing for transverse movement of atleast one of these relative to the line of travel.

THOMAS NLALDVVYN LEWIS.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Lewis et al Jan. 27,1948 Ntunber

